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Li Bai’s “Taking Leave of a Friend” · The Daily Poem

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  [music]
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  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to The Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm Sean Johnson, and today is Monday, October 5th, 2026.
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  SPEAKER_00: Today's poem is by Chinese poet Li Bai,
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  SPEAKER_00: also known as Li Po, or in the West by the Japanese rendering of his name, Rihaku.
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  SPEAKER_00: He was popularized among 20th century English readers through the translations
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  SPEAKER_00: of his work by Ezra Pound,
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  SPEAKER_00: Including today's poem, which is called, Taking Leave of a Friend.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'll read it once, offer a few comments, and read it one more time.
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  SPEAKER_00: Taking Leave of a Friend Blue mountains to the north of the walls,
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  SPEAKER_00: White river winding about them.
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  SPEAKER_00: Here we must make separation,
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  SPEAKER_00: And go out through a thousand miles of dead grass,
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  SPEAKER_00: Mind like a floating wide cloud,
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  SPEAKER_00: Sunset like the parting of old acquaintances who bow over their clasped hands at
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  SPEAKER_00: a distance.
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  SPEAKER_00: Our horses neigh to each other as we are departing.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is a poem that as a young man, I would not have liked, I think.
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  SPEAKER_00: I imagine I would have read this poem and complained that it was just someone naming things.
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  SPEAKER_00: But I see now the brilliance of the things that the speaker chooses to name.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is a poem about two friends parting ways,
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  SPEAKER_00: but that reality is conveyed through these even more powerful natural images
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  SPEAKER_00: that are older,
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  SPEAKER_00: they are grander,
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  SPEAKER_00: they are more elemental,
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  SPEAKER_00: their scale is so much greater that The severity of the human emotion
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  SPEAKER_00: under consideration is thrown into appropriate scale.
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  SPEAKER_00: Mountains are dividing features.
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  SPEAKER_00: Rivers are dividing features.
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  SPEAKER_00: A thousand-mile dead grassland is a liminal space.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's a space between things, just as there is now a space opening up between two friends.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then I love the way he completes this effect when he arrives at the sunset.
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  SPEAKER_00: Instead of saying two old acquaintances parting ways is like a sunset,
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  SPEAKER_00: he looks at the sunset and says it is like the parting of old acquaintances who bow
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  SPEAKER_00: over their clasped hands at a distance.
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  SPEAKER_00: This human event has become so significant That it is now the point of reference.
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  SPEAKER_00: The natural scenes, the natural phenomena are compared to it.
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  SPEAKER_00: They take their meaning relative to it.
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  SPEAKER_00: The farewell is more central to the reality of the speaker than even the sun in the sky.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's a brilliant effect, all the more brilliant because of its subtlety.
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  SPEAKER_00: Here's the poem one more time.
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  SPEAKER_00: Blue mountains to the north of the walls, white river winding about them.
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  SPEAKER_00: Here we must make separation and go out through a thousand miles of dead grass,
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  SPEAKER_00: mind like a floating wide cloud,
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  SPEAKER_00: sunset like the parting of old acquaintances who bow over their clasped hands at
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  SPEAKER_00: a distance.
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  SPEAKER_00: Our horses neigh to each other as we are departing.
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  SPEAKER_00: Share them with your friends and become a subscriber and a supporter of the show.
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  SPEAKER_00: For all of us at Goldberry Studios, I'm Sean Johnson wishing you happy reading.